Digital still cameras (to be referred to as “digital cameras” hereinafter) and printers which have come into widespread use recently are providing users more opportunities to make a printer at home print images captured by a digital camera. To make a printer print an image captured by a digital camera, it is necessary to communicably connect them. The communication connection for this has shifted from USB communication for connecting devices via a cable to wireless communication that is easy for a user to handle without a cable.
Examples of wireless communication between a digital camera and a printer are wireless LAN, Bluetooth®, and close proximity wireless communication using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology represented by an IC tag. Close proximity wireless communication is advantageous in the following points. Power consumption can be low because the communication range is only several cm. Since communication needs to be done with only a device manually placed within the communication range by a user, cumbersome communication configurations are unnecessary. Close proximity wireless communication is recently increasing its transmission rate and is also expected to be usable for image data transfer when causing a printer to print images captured by a digital camera.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-129218 is known as a useful conventional technique of transferring images captured by a digital camera to a printer for printing using close proximity wireless communication. The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-129218 transmits a message from a printer to a digital camera at the end of image data transmission before termination of printing, and displays, on the display screen of the digital camera, a message to notify that the camera is disconnectable.
For example, to make a printer print images captured by a digital camera, conventionally, communication between the digital camera and the printer is established first. The user then selects print images and makes configurations about paper, the number of sheets, border/borderless, and the like by operating the digital camera and instructs execution of printing. It is necessary to continuously keep the communication established state during the time from communication establishment up to image transmission to the printer. Establishing communication between the digital camera and the printer using close proximity wireless communication in the communication range of only several cm and performing various operations while maintaining the communication established state is considerably detrimental to user's convenience.